Enteroviruses cause annual epidemics in North America in the period from late summer through early fall. While the majority of the infected individuals are asymptomatic, they are nonetheless capable of transmitting enteroviruses which cause a wide spectrum of diseases, including aseptic meningitis, encephalitis, paralysis, myocarditis, respiratory and gastrointestinal disorders, muscular disability, exanthema and reye's syndrome. In young children, enteroviruses are responsible for aseptic meningitis. Thus, early detection of infection with enteroviruses is critical for disease management.
Thus, to detect and/or isolate enteroviruses from clinical specimens, one approach employed by the prior art has been the use of cell cultures containing a single cell type which is susceptible to infection by enteroviruses, such as buffalo green monkey kidney (BGMK) cells and human lung mucoepidermoid carcinoma cells (NCI-H292, also referred to as H292). However, while BGMK cells are sensitive to some enteroviruses, such as Coxsackie B viruses, their sensitivity is poor to other enteroviruses, such as echoviruses. Similarly, the sensitivity of the H292 cells is variable to different enteroviruses.
Another approach which has been used by the prior art to detect and/or isolate a wider variety of enteroviruses from clinical specimens has employed using a combination of cells [such as primary monkey kidney cells, and cell lines of BGMK cells, human rhabdomyosarcoma (RD) cells, human epidermoid carcinoma (A-549) cells, MRC-5 cells, and others] which are susceptible to enteroviruses. However, even with this multi-cell type approach, and even when incorporating H292 or BGMK cells, the prior art's shell vial cultures and test tube cultures require from about 3 to about 5 day, respectively, to detect enteroviruses.
Thus, what is needed are cells with enhanced sensitivity for enteroviruses to allow rapid detection of enteroviruses, and for cells with a broader spectrum of susceptibility to enteroviruses to allow detection of several types of enteroviruses.